1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrolysis device for the galvanic reinforcement of tape-shaped plastic foils which are precoated to be conductive, and which run through an electrolysis bath in vertical loops, the electrolysis bath including an electrolysis tank having vertical anode plates which are arranged parallel to the tape path and the device being provided with guide and contacting rollers which are arranged above the bath, and with a washing station and a drying station.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the German published application No. 1,521,076, a device is specified for the plating of a strand of plastic, wherein by means of chemical deposition, first a metal layer of extremely small thickness is generated on the plastic, which layer is then electrolytically reinforced. For the electrolytic reinforcement, the precoated strand is guided in a multiplicity of loops through an electrolysis bath which has an electrolysis tank with vertical anode plates arranged parallel to the path of travel of the strand and which has guide and contacting rollers arranged above the bath. In this device, the three first loops are kept significantly shorter than the following loops and are connected to different voltages so that to some extent they are to be viewed as independent electrolysis cells. At the first guide and contacting rollers, a voltage of approximately 15 V is applied, at the second a voltage of 5 V is applied and at the remaining rollers a voltage of 2 V is applied. The decreasing of the loop length and graduation of the voltages in the first electrolytic cells occurred because it was not possible to maintain a voltage in the first loop which is necessary for the electroplating process of the strand. Because of the extremely small thickness of the chemically-generated metal coating a loop normal length would lead to such an increase of the resistance in the thin metal layer that an electrolysis would hardly take place.